RickInOz

Time flies and it hardly seems like yesterday that we launched the last release, yet in fact it was before Christmas. With the local instructor quarterlies this weekend, it will only be a few weeks will be launch BodyPump 73, so time to put up the preview:

BODYPUMP® 73 is challenging, bordering on punishing, but it will leave you with a great sense of achievement. We’ve got intense isolated work in store for you, especially in the Chest, Triceps, Biceps and Shoulders Tracks. Get prepared right now for the huge cardio endurance work in Tracks 2, 4 and 7.

Musically, this release holds a real contrast of genres that will get you through the intensity of the workout. Feel strong and confident as the chart-topping music pushes you to new limits.

Get ready for big blocks of Singles that will really drive your heart rate up in the Squats Track. The awesome anthem DOA will motivate you to keep going all the way to the end. You’ll not only feel this one in your legs – your heart will be pumping hard too.

It’s a party on the bench in Track 3! Watch out for the days of the week in I Gotta Feeling – a week has never felt so long for your chest. Next is the crescendo of athleticism that is Track 4. Four blocks of powerful back work will take you to a cardio adrenaline-pumping high.

For Triceps, we’ve got isolated work that just doesn’t back off but the massive song will help you make it through. There’s no hiding in this one, evacuate the PUMP floor! Then, get ready for pain in the Biceps – hello ¾ Range Singles!

Smells Like Teen Spirit brings more pain for the shoulders in Track 8, before a new exercise, the Alternate Leg Extension & Twist, spices up Jordin Sparks’ remake of the hit S.O.S.

As you will all remember, I’ve been thinking about ways to remain in Australia at my discretion, rather than being beholden to the immigration department every couple of years. So far, my plan has always been to gain specialist status and then use that to request permanent residency on the grounds of being indispensable.

But, having talked to a few of my colleagues, it would seem that there is an easier way. Getting in under my own steam requires scoring enough “points”, based on a usefulness-vs-demand principle which is dependent on the fickleness of the assessor. So, instead, I’m going to use Regan’s citizenship as a springboard to apply for a spouse visa.

Most countries require that couples be married for this type of visa, but the advanced free-thinking society in Australia considers any co-habitation for more than 6 months as eligible for de-facto status. This means we get the same rights and recognition as a formal marriage without needing a certificate to prove it.

Of course, this isn’t going to be a walk in the park, and there is a plethora of forms to fill in. Then, we have to prove that we’re financially self-sufficient, and need character witness statements to confirm that I haven’t just stepped off a plane and am a con artist.

After all this, the visa is still temporary for 2 years, and which time they reassess us before conversion to permanency. However, it still beats the amount of hassle associated with an independent migrant visa.

It shouldn’t be at all difficult proving our relationship as were due to celebrate our 10th anniversary this year and have more paperwork with both our names on it than even a government department could cope with.

Righto, off to fill in some forms.

This is another go at Strine after my pitiful attempt last year, and probably closer to how most people would rattle off the name of the inaugural road race of the professional cycling calendar.

For once I actually had a weekend off, so after seeing Avatar last night – very good in 3D, see it if you haven’t yet – we went to see the final stage of the Tour Down Under today. One of the advantages of practically living in the city centre is that we didn’t have to walk far to see the race as it looped around the northern city parklands.

I can understand why many people watch any sort of racing on television, as you get a rapid flurry of activity as the field goes through followed by some minutes of inactivity before the loop repeats itself. However there is something about the atmosphere of the crowd and the opportunity to get very close to some elite athletes that the screen can’t replicate. It also never truly shows how quick these guys move as even on tight city streets they still averaged well over 30kph , not slowing at all for the corners.

Also an opportunity to see the iconic Lance Armstrong, although I couldn’t really tell him apart from the other cyclists given they all wear team colours and ride the same bikes. When moving quickly it’s difficult to pick one lean, tanned, waxed man from another. However, the benefits of a camera with a good lens and 9 frames per second shooting, and some careful sifting through the pictures, showed that he was there after all

Remainder of the piccies here.

But a long journey still ahead.

After much procrastinating and deliberation, the AMC have finally accepted that I may actually be who I say I am. But this isn’t enough for the South Australian Medical Board, so the next stage is undeway. I received my provisional AMC certificate before Christmas, but can’t get full registration until I prove that I am a junior doctor again.

That’s right, despite holding a post-graduate Australian fellowship qualification, I still have to go through 3 separate exams. It wouldn’t be too bad if these were similar to the tough exam I’ve recently been through, but instead they want to test me as if I’d just graduated.

So this is going to be a tough challenge. I essentially have to forget over 8 years of medical experience and initiative and reduce myself to the clumsy, naive standard of a final year medical student. This means asking lots of vague questions and being more interested in trivialities like the patient’s pets than what’s actually wrong with them. For some reason, medical students are taught to take a medical history in a manner that is utterly impractical for everyday practice. It doesn’t take long before junior doctors learn the real way to interview patients that gets the maximum amount of relevant information in the shortest possible time.

But I’ll have to play by the board’s rules and remember to ask irrelevant questions like “How old is your wife/husband/spouse/cat/antique plate collection?”, rather than “Why did you come to hospital today?”. Hopefully I’ll get through this test, but I’m not holding my breath. One of my colleagues who’s going through a similar ordeal, and is a better physician than me, failed his for failing to ask the name of the patient’s children and when she’d last had a smear.

The first of the exams is next week. I’ll keep you posted on what trivial technicalities they pick me up on.

The reason for each uncertain, but the existence of each certain.

Regular pumpers will know what I mean. Some days you seem to get through the class with comparative ease, and other days you struggle to make it to the end. This despite lifting exactly the same weight and doing the same tracks. So, with an identical workout the perception of difficulty should be no different.

I’ve considered a number of potential variables like studio temperature, fans being on or off, and time of day, but could find no set pattern. Then I thought about physiological causes such as degree of hydration, time since last meal, what eaten for last meal, amount of sleep the night before, and so on. Again, nothing flagged consistently enough to give an indication as to what I can do to optimise my performance every class.

The consideration hasn’t been completely in vain as I’ve elicited a couple of factors that have a negative impact, namely being dehydrated and night shifts. The two probably go together as being busy at work and being in a dry air-conditioned environment contribute to lack of fluid. The dry and hot South Australian climate doesn’t help either, so now I try to make sure I drink plenty at work. But then it doesn’t seem to matter how well hydrated I am, just so long as I’m not dry.

So, this effectively means classes will always be a lottery. We’re never going to know in advance whether it’s going to be a “good” one or a “bad” one. Which is annoying in a way, as if we did know, then there would be the potential to adjust weight accordingly so to avoid the risk of injury on “bad” days and maximise results on “good” days. I guess in lieu of a reliable marker we just have to go in and work as “good day” every time.

On the plus side, there is that psychological boost from still managing to do “good” day weights even on “bad” days.

Someone kindly pointed out the flagrant hypocrisy in posting about wanting meaningful action on climate change not long after posting about buying a car that emits 243g of CO₂ per kilometre (just for context, that’s in the second highest UK tax band – L).

In so doing, they had a fair point, but I do try to do my bit for Gaia. Our house has all low-wattage bulbs, our white-goods are A-rated, we turn as many appliances off at the wall as possible, switch off lights/heating/cooling in rooms we aren’t in and our electricity supplier carbon-offsets our entire consumption. I also cycle to work, even when it’s raining, and use the bus to get into the city centre.

Now, I’m not claiming holier-than-thou status, nor even that I’m particularly “green”, but I do the best I can with what resources are available. If there had been an emission-free engine option for the Subaru that offered similar performance, then I would have chosen it without hesitation. But that wasn’t the case, and so it will have to burn petrol.

Many of the bigger car companies, even ones you might have suspected as being stalwarts for sticking to tradition like Chrysler, have started researching alternative power generation methods. Electricity is currently touted as a “green” alternative, but where do those watts come from to charge the battery? That’s right, the burning of fossil fuels, so no dice there. Hydrogen might be an alternative, but the only currently commercially viable production method involves electricity. So the problem goes round and round.

So, why am I continuing to rant about this. Well, my vitriol is still aimed at governments. With their vast budgets and ability to legislate, they are the only organisations who are capable of forcing change through. The good intentions of corporate giants can only achieve so much until they are hamstrung by the need to remain profitable. Currently the only real-world-usable all-electric and hydrogen cars are prohibitively expensive. Similarly, fuels that have lower emissions per litre than petrol. Once there used to be a government subsidy on diesel, but Greedy Gordon worked out that he was losing too much money when everyone started buying diesel cars, and so rapidly pulled it. In fact when we left the UK diesel was more expensive than petrol, so actually acting as a disincentive for buying a greener car. Great move, chump.

Until the collective might of the international political leaders becomes sufficiently motivated, I can’t see anything changing. Platitudes like the Copenhagen conference aren’t going to change a thing in the near future. Instead it will take significant catastrophe like:

1. Oil extraction becomes prohibitively expensive
2. Widespread famine decimates the human population
3. Rising sea levels flood major population centres
4. Extreme weather patterns threaten our survival
5. Fresh water becomes scarce

or wars over any of the above, to galvanise action.

But this is the major failing with governments. In democracy, they are all too scared to be bold for fear of failing re-election. In communism or totalitarianism, there is no means of quality control. Instead it will boil down to the usual motivator – death. No, I’m not being melodramatic. Think about any major public safety initiative over the past decade or two and then investigate the trigger event. Be it gun control, pedestrian crossing design, child-proof bottle caps, or whatever, someone died and good came of it.

So how many lives will it take for this issue to see some significant and consequential action?

The recent Copenhagen conference and the Kyoto treaty before it have been little more effective than putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. It’s been clear for decades that the prospect of climate change is not just the scaremongering of a few paranoid scientists, yet little action has resulted. It doesn’t help that countries like China and India deliberately sabotage any attempts to curb carbon emissions, with the age-old excuse that it would lead to their financial ruin.

But change can occur and successfully too if there is the political will. In the mid-80s grim warnings about the effect CFCs were having on the ozone layer were taken extremely seriously. Within only a couple of years the offending chemicals were almost completely eradicated from use. As a result, although ozone depletion is still a problem, there is evidence that the layer is on the road to recovery and should return to baseline levels by the end of this century.

In fact, we have exerted pollution control in recent history. Smog used to be a major problem in most industrial nations and contributed to a decline in respiratory health. It reached epic proportions enough to prompt many countries to enact Clean Air Acts to force the use of smokeless fuels, filtering technologies and a move towards alternative power generation (i.e: nuclear). And none of these countries slid into economic crisis, rather the alternative as governments plugged money into developing new technologies and then made profits from exporting the same.

So why now the rant? Well, today Scaredy had to be admitted at the vet clinic with heatstroke. We were in the throes of the 3rd successive day above 41 degrees and he started to pant. This is a worrying sign in cats and implies that their ability to compensate has been exceeded. Fortunately we caught him early enough and he shouldn’t suffer any long-term harm, but it has still come as enough of a worry and stress to all concerned.

Those of you shivering through the European winter may be thinking us lucky to be having such warmth, but even your aberrant weather pattern can be traced to climate change with the shifting of the Gulf Stream.

The intentional short-sightedness and belligerence of many nations internationally annoys me intensely. What is worse is that the immediate greed is utterly unnecessary. Carbon offsetting, renewable and alternative energy sources and forestation rather than deforestation could all generate huge fiscal flux around the world and potentially be the backbone of a new era of financial growth.

But instead, we have become dangerously addicted to fossil fuels and especially crude oil. Unfortunately, as is typically the case, governments will continue to follow Newton’s First Law. I hope when that change is forced, we have time to reverse the damage done in the interim period of blasé indifference. And I hope it happens very soon as I don’t want today’s scare to happen again. Ever.

Just a quick note:

We’ve both been back to work this week, and it’s been a bit of a shock to the system. Regan especially took almost 3 weeks off, and I had become rather used to being on leave. In fact it was rather relaxing to be able to get lots of little things done …. all those chores we’d been putting off … not to mention hosting Xmas and getting away albeit very briefly.

It’s made us consider what’s important. The cliché “you work to live, not the other way round” is ringing rather pertinently at the moment.

A little more sophisticated than nuts and gum. Despite that, an unusual combination, but it does work.

It may not be common knowledge, but one of our favourite wines is the Rosé made by the Hahndorf Hill Winery. Having ordered from them before Christmas we received a gift with the wine, an introductory offer to partake of the new ChocoVino experience.

They have come up with an interesting concept, that of tasting chocolate in the same manner that one would taste wine. It is also a means of enlightening people to the availability of very fine, niche product not typically available at your local store.

For us, this included tasting the unique Noir Infini, which contains 99% cocoa solids. We expected this to taste very bitter and strong, but instead the fine production techniques and attention has created a very intense yet smooth taste. There are many similarities between the taste of cocoa, coffee and tobacco and we certainly appreciated the earthy, smoky taste with an unusual velvety texture not found in other chocolate.

Interestingly, chocolate radically alters the taste of wine. Most of the wines tasted dry by comparison to the sweetness of chocolate, but the Noir Infini has so little sugar added that it actually brought out the fruit sugar in the Rosé that accompanied it.

These last few posts have certainly had a recurring theme, but the indulgence will have to be tempered from now on. Going back to the gym today certainly was painful.

Vacation. Having not been on holiday for over a year, it was about time we “got away” for a change.

In fact, we just got back yesterday from a quick jaunt down to the Coonawarra.  For those who aren’t aware this is an established wine-producing area, benefiting from relatively good rainfall, cool winters and warm summers. The key aspect is the terra rosa soil that adds a unique flavour to the wine.

So, on the first day we drove down from Adelaide and,  after a quick lunch in Naracoorte, visited some of the less well-known wineries like Punter’s Corner as well as established names like Wynn’s.

Normally these vineyards are known for their rich, earthy reds, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. But instead, we tasted some surprisingly good whites including an excellent Riesling at Katnook.

Then, the following day, we took the opportunity to see the World Heritage listed Naracoorte Caves. These limestone caves were formed naturally by groundwater erosion with some stretches some half a million years old. There were some truly beautiful formations including actively forming stalactites and stalagmites.

We were also surprised by how cool the air in the caves was. Even though it was over 40 degrees outside and a bright sunny day, the caves were still a pleasant 18 degrees. Apparently they remain this sort of temperature all year round, rarely getting warm in summer nor cold in winter.

The cave system is also host to a diverse ecology, most important of which is the Southern Bentwing Bat. I was under the assumption that the only indigenous mammals in Australia were marsupials, but this bat is placental yet never introduced. Unfortunately we weren’t actually allowed to see the bats in person as they and their habitat are carefully protected, however we were able to watch their activities remotely by infra-red camera.

The last, but more important feature and reason for Heritage status, is the fossil load. The sedimentary rocks have preserved the bones of many hundreds of species over the past couple of hundred thousand years. This includes many marsupials that are now extinct and have never been seen by homo sapiens.

Although we were only down there for two days, we still feel like we got a lot out of that time. If nothing else, it was a good opportunity to run in the new car and get some kms on the clock. So, we’ve finally started getting out of Adelaide and doing different things. This change in lifestyle was a while coming, but now we’re making the most of it.

Rest of the photos here.